Supernatural: Season 12, Episode 12 – Stuck in the Middle (With You)

WARNING: This review contains spoilers for previous episodes of Supernatural.

“I admit they don’t sound like much, but every Armageddon, every bloody ‘this is the end of all things,’ the Winchesters stopped it. Like it or not, they’re an asset we can’t afford to lose.” –Crowley

This past Thursday, Supernatural took viewers on a Pulp Fiction inspired ride, complete with non-linear storytelling and a glowing mystery object. “Stuck in the Middle (With You),” a reference to a Stealers Wheel song, is directed by the wonderful Richard Speight Jr., who played Gabriel in earlier seasons. It’s awesome to see that even though his character has died, he remains an active part of Supernatural, with this episode marking his second credit as director.

This episode focuses on Sam, Dean, and Cas helping Mary and her friend on a hunt for a demon. What initially is thought to be a straightforward hunt soon turns into chaos as the demon they’re up against is stronger than anticipated. This episode also saw the return of one of my favorite characters, Crowley, played by the phenomenal Mark Shepherd. This episode is very well written and interesting to watch as the story is told from three different perspectives, starting with Cas, shifting to Mary Winchester, and ending with Crowley.

For long time fans of the show, this episode was full of references to previous seasons. We finally learn how Crowley was promoted from a top-notch crossroads demon to his current position of King of Hell. Ruby’s demon blade from the third and fourth seasons makes an appearance, and the primary villain from the first two seasons, the yellow-eyed demon Azazel, gets mentioned on more than one occasion. Lilith, the antagonist from seasons three and four also gets mentioned, along with some potential villains for future episodes. The end of the episode even includes a reveal of a fan favorite object from the first five seasons.

This episode has a lot of awesome moments; from Castiel’s emotional speech to Sam, Dean, and Mary to Crowley admitting his allegiance to the Winchesters, this episode has plenty of great interactions between the characters. We also learn more about Mary’s interest in the British Men of Letters, a subplot that was hinted at the end of the episode “First Blood.” This plot line is a fascinating way to work the British Men of Letters into the rest of this season, since their previous involvement in this season has been unclear up until now. Since the Winchesters are notorious for keeping secrets and not communicating well, it will be interesting to see how Sam and Dean react when they inevitably find out what their mother is hiding. We also had Lucifer’s lovechild mentioned a couple times throughout this episode, and according to the trailer for next week, it looks like the Winchesters will be returning to solving that problem, which was introduced in the mid season finale.

Ryan is a Music Media Production major who wrote the first ever Byte music review and has been involved with nearly every other section at some point. He is also an event planner at Village Green Records and the primary booking coordinator for the store’s outdoor concerts.